Monday, April 25, 2011

SuperPhillip's Favorite VGMs - Character Parade Edition

Welcome to a new week on SuperPhillip Central. As always we begin with the favorite VGMs. This week we'll visit with characters such as Mega Man X, Mario, Professor Layton, and Sora from Kingdom Hearts. Nothing to it but to do it!

Mega Man Maverick Hunter X was a PlayStation Portable remake of the Super Nintendo classic, Mega Man X. There was the ability to play as X nemesis, Vile, new level arrangements, and pretty new visuals to gawk at. The soundtrack was also remixed as evident by the track you're listening to now, Opening Stage - Central Highway. It was great seeing an old 16-bit classic get the remake treatment, and it was an excellent addition to the PSP library. Unfortunately this title was overlooked by many gamers and sold poorly. Thanks, PSP owners. You screwed everyone out of remakes of the sequels!

Mario Party 3 was the final game in the trio of Mario Party games for the Nintendo 64. Chilly Waters was the first board in the game full of snowmen, icy traps, and familiar characters from Mario 64. Out of the trio of N64 Mario Party games, Mario Party 3 is the game that I remember the least of. I do know that Waluigi made his first Mario Party appearance in the game, having his own board. He was a playable character, too, alongside Daisy. Out of the Nintendo 64 Mario Parties, though, my favorite happens to be Mario Party 2. The first Mario Party game had too many ridiculous mini-games that required robotic rapid finger movements. You could have the blisters to prove it.

Professor Layton is a series that features a story where progression is gained through solving simple to complex brain teasers and puzzles. The franchise is still strong having just released its fifth installment in Japan. Of course, the rest of the world has only seen three games. The minicar mini-game had players placing directional tiles to guide the professor's minicar to the goal. The catch is that you only had a limited amount of tiles to work with, and when you throw in the ability to make the car leap, and you have one complex and thoroughly challenging (and fun) mini-game.

Nothing like haunting carnival music to get you in the mood to track down and slay Heaven's Smiles. Killer7 was originally planned as one of the Capcom Five, a handful of Gamecube exclusives that would propel the system to new heights. It didn't turn out as planned. Dead Phoenix was canceled, Viewtiful Joe got an upgrade on the PlayStation 2, same with Resident Evil 4, P.N. 03 was a dud, and Killer7 wound up on the PS2 as well. To be fair the Gamecube did get Gotcha Force which almost makes up for it.

Dance to the Death is the final boss theme of the Beauty and the Beast world in Kingdom Hearts II. The soundtrack was composed by Yoko Shimomura who has an illustrious career. I recently tried my hand at Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, but I was quickly put off by the steep difficulty curve, poor camera and lock-on, and trying to juggle cycling through commands and controlling my guy. As you can read in my review, this is one Kingdom Hearts game you can pass on. As for Kingdom Hearts II, that was a surprisingly great game. Its soundtrack is even better.

That concludes this week's stream of VGMs. Next week there will be five more excellent themes from video games' past. I hope you'll look forward to it.